1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a recording apparatus that includes a transportation mechanism that transports a recording material, a recording head that reciprocates in a direction intersecting the transporting direction of the recording material, and a light irradiation section. The recording head has a nozzle row that discharges photoactive liquids onto the recording material being transported. The light irradiation section has a light emitting device row that irradiates the discharged photoactive liquids with light in order to chemically change the liquids. The light emitting device row and the nozzle row extend in the same direction.
2. Related Art
To date, recording apparatuses that include a recording head and a light irradiation section have been developed, as disclosed in JP-A-2005-104108 and JP-A-2004-314304. In such a recording apparatus, the recording head has a nozzle row where many nozzle openings are arranged that discharging light-curable inks (for example, ultraviolet (UV) curable inks) onto the recording surface of a recording material (hereinafter, also referred to as “paper”). In addition, the light irradiation section has a light emitting device row where multiple light emitting devices (for example, light emitting diodes (LEDs)) are arranged that irradiates the discharged light-curable inks with light in order to cure the inks.
In a recording apparatus having a carriage to which a recording head is attached and which reciprocates in a direction intersecting a transporting direction of paper, two light emitting device rows are arranged on respective sides of nozzle rows having various color inks, in order to irradiate light-curable inks with light upon both the forward and backward movements of the recording head, as described in the above-mentioned patent documents.
In the above recording apparatus, if one of the light emitting devices, such as LEDs, constituting the light emitting device row fails during a recording process, light-curable inks discharged from several tens of nozzle openings that correspond to the failed light emitting device are left uncured. In this case, a useless printed material having no commercial value may be produced.
Neither of the above-mentioned documents describes any measures against the failure of a light emitting device as described above. In consideration of a current market for available materials printed with light-curable inks, taking measures against the failure of a light emitting device has become an important issue.
Accordingly, it is desirable to be able to continue recording without leaving light-curable inks uncured, even if some light emitting devices fail.